Richa Chadha will soon be seen alongside Pratik Gandhi in The Great Indian Murder. Directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, the web series will begin streaming on Disney+ Hotstar from February 4 onwards in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Bengali. It is an adaptation of Vikas Swarup’s famous novel, Six Suspects and is produced by Ajay Devgn and Priti Vinay Sinha under their banner Ajay Devgn FFilms and RLE Media. We caught up with Richa to talk about the show and more. Excerpts:
What made you greenlight The Great Indian Murder?
It has a lovely cast and a good director. What else can an actor ask for?
How different are you from the character you are playing?
What we are in real life is different from the roles we play on reel. In real life, I will trust Pratik with my money. But not the character that he plays in this show. I guess it’s about the characters we play. Our personality in real life is different, and onscreen we are just donning a character. In this show, Sudha is a morally upright character who is an investigating officer. She wants to get to the roots and solve the case. She has a few hiccups. It’s not easy to perform your duties in a male set-up or in a place where political pressures exist while conducting the investigations. But yeah, I really enjoyed playing her.
How was the experience of working with Pratik?
Working with Pratik was great fun. Not only is he popular now but he is also a great actor. There was a great dynamic together. In short, it has been a memorable experience. I hope we can collaborate more in the near future.
Are you playing the good cop while Pratik is playing the bad cop with grey shades?
There is more to it. It is a little grey, and even my character has something in the past.
How was your experience working with Tigmanshu?
He is multi-faceted. He can act, direct and write, which is very evident in this show. His direction is spot on. When you have somebody so controlled in his craft, the whole process becomes enjoyable. Directors like Hansal Mehta and Tigmanshu are flying on OTT because they don’t have box office compulsions. There is no need to put songs, action and all that. They do their best work on the OTT platform.
Do you agree there is box office pressure too?
I agree theatrical pressures do exist... Films releasing in theatres pre-pandemic also had a different pressure. Generally, you need good weekend grossings. All those pressures do exist in the minds of filmmakers and technicians associated with the film. I have been part of films ready for release, and suddenly, the producers are told to insert some promotional songs. How do you lure the audiences into the cinema halls? But on OTT, you make what you like and what people like to watch. Even if the show has big stars, you change in 30 seconds if it’s not good and not fit to be enjoyed.
Pic: Instagram/therichachadha
Is it true that you wanted an entire girls team to work for Girls Will Be Girls, which is being produced under your production house, Pushing Buttons?
Well, it’s not possible to just have girls in the whole team. Our first film, Girls Will be Girls, is a great story of a teenage daughter coming of age and a mother. I hope people like it. We will go on floors in September. Pre-production work and crewing up is in the process. It’s at the advanced stage of development. So that’s where we are right now. Ali (Fazal) and I are not acting in it.
